In many Nigerian corporations, boardroom conversations revolve around quarterly earnings, market expansion, regulatory shifts, and digital transformation. These rooms, adorned with glass tables and guarded optimism, are where the future of entire organisations is forged. Yet, conspicuously absent from these decisive discussions is a voice critical to a company’s enduring success: the voice of the Learning Leader. This absence is not just a gap; it is a strategic oversight.
Learning and development (L&D) leaders are the architects of workforce capability, the custodians of organisational memory, and the navigators of cultural transformation. As Nigeria’s economy becomes more diverse and global demands grow, organisations that fail to give learning a seat at the right level will fall behind their competitors.
From Training Officer to Strategy Architect
Many Nigerian companies still view L&D from a transaction lens, handling training, onboarding, compliance, and retreats. However, this model is dated due to AI disruption, talent mobility, and changing regulations; today’s business climate requires something different. L&D needs to become a strategic lever, not just a support function.
Progressive multinationals have already figured this out. Globally, companies like Microsoft and Unilever have Chief Learning Officers who report directly to the CEO. They influence decisions about talent, innovation, customer experience, and Mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Why? Because the battle for competitive advantage is increasingly fought on the terrain of knowledge, adaptability, and organisational agility, areas where learning leaders hold the keys.
Nigeria is no exception to this dynamic. From Lagos to Kano, from fintech startups to legacy banks, the velocity of change is dizzying. Yet, in most boardrooms across the country, the person best positioned to interpret what that change means for employee capability is often several layers removed from where strategic decisions are made.
Business Strategy Is Learning Strategy
To be clear, every strategic decision has a learning implication. Expanding into francophone West Africa requires your staff to navigate language, legal norms, and cultural nuances. Pivoting to digital channels requires your frontline teams to be retrained in customer experience design and digital tools. Launching an ESG initiative requires organisation-wide sensitisation on sustainability principles and reporting frameworks.
In each case, if the learning function is brought in after the decision, the organisation has already lost valuable time. By contrast, if learning leaders are in the room when the decision is being made, they can map learning interventions in real-time, anticipate capability gaps, and accelerate execution.
Unfortunately, most Nigerian boards still view learning as a downstream activity. Strategy is set, then HR is told to “cascade it down.” But this linear model fails in today’s interconnected world. A better model recognises that learning leaders don’t just support strategy, they inform it. They bring insight from the frontline, pattern recognition from development data, and a pulse on employee sentiment. They know where talent is struggling, where the organisation is resistant to change, and where micro-skills are emerging.
When the learning function is embedded at the strategic level, organisations make better, faster, and more sustainable decisions.
Business Case for Elevating Learning Leaders
De-Risking Execution
Strategies fail not for lack of brilliance, but for lack of alignment. Learning leaders can preempt execution pitfalls by designing enablement plans that translate strategy into daily behaviours. This alignment reduces rollout failures, minimises resistance, and ensures faster ROI.
Future-Proofing the Organisation
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution intensifies, Nigeria will have to deal with the challenge of faster skills obsolescence. Board-level learning executives can help direct investments toward reskilling, upskilling, and AI readiness to forestall the impact of disruption.
Driving Culture Change
Memos and mission statements don’t transform culture; daily habits do. Learning leaders know how to use experiential learning, coaching, and peer-driven models to make cultural changes stick. If boards want to renovate the culture, they need L&D at the table.
Translating Strategy into Talent
Learning leaders ensure the right people have the right capabilities at the right time. That alignment is not optional, it is existential. Great talent makes a key difference between a good and a great strategy. This strategic alignment must be continuous, not episodic, to remain competitive in today’s volatile markets.
Offering Strategic Intelligence
Learning analytics reveals where people are disengaged, where teams excel, and which parts of the organisation are ripe for transformation. In a data-driven boardroom, this insight is gold. As noted in the Chief Learning Officer magazine, learning leaders are now expected to deliver insights with the same strategic weight as financial or operational reports (CLO, 2024)2
Nigerian Realities, Global Imperatives
The Nigerian context presents unique challenges. Budgets are tight, many CEOs are still anchored in traditional leadership paradigms, and there is an enduring scepticism about soft functions. But these are not reasons to delay; they are reasons to act.
Learning leaders must take the initiative. They must evolve their language from instructional design to business value and speak regarding revenue impact, risk mitigation, and strategic acceleration. Boards must witness the practical difference a learning-aligned culture can deliver, faster execution, stronger morale, and sustained innovation.
Simultaneously, CEOs and boards must open the door. They must recognise that in an economy where talent is the new oil, the Chief Learning Officer is a strategic resource, not a cost centre. They must ask: Who is thinking full-time about how we learn faster than our competitors? If the answer is no one, the board clearly has a blind spot.
A Blueprint for the Future
To bridge this gap, Nigerian companies must act on three fronts:
1. Reposition the Learning Function
Rename, rebrand, and refocus it. Move beyond “training” to “capability building.” Integrate learning with workforce planning, digital transformation, and innovation.
2. Create the Role of Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
This is not a glorified trainer. The CLO should be part of the executive team, reporting to the CEO, with a mandate to align talent development to business growth.
Embed Learning in Strategy Reviews
Make it routine for learning leaders to present at strategy sessions. Let them highlight capability risks, share insights from learning data, and co-design the talent roadmap.
A healthy boardroom challenges ideas, not just repeats them. It should reflect the full spectrum of what makes an organisation successful, including learning in today’s world. If Nigerian companies are serious about transformation, innovation, and sustainable growth, they must invite their learning leaders to the table, not as guests, but as future architects. Companies that learn fast are the ones that win.
Let’s Rethink the Seat at the Table
If your organisation is ready to align strategy with capability, Phillips Consulting, Nigeria’s trusted partner in learning and development, can help you chart the path forward. Let’s shape that future together.
Written by:
Paul Ayim
Digital Learning
1https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report